Daniel Wafena Bell (July 23, 1891 – October 4, 1971) was an American civil servant and businessman. Born in Kinderhook, Illinois, he was acting director of the Bureau of the Budget (now the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...

) from September 1, 1934, until April 14, 1939. He left the post to serve as Undersecretary of the Treasury from 1940 to 1945. Bell negotiated with Colonel Kenneth Nichols for the transfer of silver from the West Point Depository to the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

, to substitute for scarce copper in the electromagnets used in the electromagnetic separation process at the Y-12 National Security Complex; eventually about 14,700 tons of silver was used. Nichols initially said he needed six thousand tons of silver, but initially neither of them could convert the weight to troy ounces. When Nichols said ''What difference does it make how we express the quantity'' Bell replied ''Young man, you may think of silver in tons, but the Treasury will always think of silver in troy ounces''. Nichols, K. D. ''The Road to Trinity'' page 42 (1987, Morrow, New York) After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he became president of American Security and Trust Company. He died in 1971 at the age of 80, in his Washington home.

References

1891 births 1971 deaths People from Pike County, Illinois American bankers Directors of the Office of Management and Budget United States Department of the Treasury officials National University School of Law alumni Southeastern University (Washington, D.C.) alumni {{US-gov-bio-stub